The Link

When technology offers Tylee the chance to connect with others it seems too good to be true. Never able to connect with family or friends Tylee felt invisible until a new job opened a doorway to the link, a new technology that allows her to connect with others. It opened doors within her, too, but at what cost? Tylee finds answers, and many questions in the link. More

Tylee Havey is alone. She is so alone that she has come to believe that she is invisible to the people around her. She has never been able to connect with family or to make friends. But Tylee is smart. She discovered like minds at her University, and her passion became the pursuit of a new form of communications technology. She hoped that this technology would enable her to find the connections for which she longed.

Several years spent caring for an ailing parent caused Tylee to lose the tenuous connections that she had developed at school. She was set aside for a time, dealing daily with loneliness and loss. She tried to make friends, she tried church, she tried political groups and each effort seemed to move her farther from her goal. She was alone and she knew that others were too. Tylee came to believe that she lived in a world of lonely people, each one afraid to admit that they were isolated, ashamed to be alone in the crowd.

Then a new opportunity came her way. Tylee reentered the world of communications research, and discovered the link - a new technology that made it possible for her to touch another mind directly. She saw that her own past research had been built upon, and developed. Alone in the lab she attempted the link. She saw herself through the eyes of another and discovered that she was a person of value. The world took on color. She was no longer alone, no longer lonely.

The research, this technology came with a cost and Tylee has to find answers – how can the link be used? Who should use it? And most importantly who controls the Link? Because Tylee knows, from her own experience, that she is not able to control the link and she knows that there are others who want to use the link for their own purposes. Others were working on the technology that Tylee had helped to create. Some of these had no motive other than the desire to see their theories become realities, but Tylee knew that there were those who longed for money and others who wanted power. Technology is neither good nor evil, Tylee thought, but it could be put to good or evil purposes.

Tylee is set on a path. She must find a way to control the link because only the ability to control it can make the link safe. She must make the link available to those who can benefit from it, and protect others who would use it without considering consequences. In this journey Tylee find friends, she finds love and she finds purpose. The Link must be made available to those who need it, and kept out of the hands of those who would use it only for personal gain.

This technology is not merely science fiction. Research is being done now. The brain is being mapped. Animal research has created links, via the internet, that open the door to new methods of controlling minds. Human testing is occurring, and the link will be a part of our lives sooner than you know. But have the questions been answered? What is the purpose of the link? Who should use the link? Most important of all, who will control the Link? Because someone will.

Sheree Sutton (September 1955 – Present) is an American born writer of poetry, and non fiction. The Link is Ms. Sutton’s first science fiction novel. Early life experiences included attending 10 different schools and frequent moves around Washington State, California, Hawaii and to the Federated States of Micronesia. Attending University in Eastern Washington State afforded the opportunity to settle for a while, and a degree in Creative Writing with a poetry emphasis was the result. Married for nearly 30 years, and now single Ms. Sutton is happily settled in North Idaho. She has 2 grown children, 5 grandchildren and 2 dogs. Life is good.